I've been suffering from Sleep Paralysis since I was a kid (8?). Now I'm 25. Actually, I had no clue what Sleep Paralysis was until this morning after an episode I decided to look it up and see if anyone else was going through what I've been through. It's a relief to know that I'm not alone in this. But it's sad to see so many suffer from it...

Well my experiences with SP have ranged from seeing ghosts, being dragged into the darkness, feeling a dark presence trying to take over my body, a heavy weight on my chest, trying to call out but not being able to move at all and others.

I used to be afraid of them, dreaded falling back asleep, and when I would eventually break free my heart rate was going really fast.

But now I find that I don't fear it at all. In fact, I come out of them calm and now I am laughing in them...

Like today. I was in the middle of a dream when I thought I felt a glass bottle break over my head. The minute it broke over my head my body went numb, and I felt like I was sinking into the darkness.

I struggled to move my head to see who it was that hit me with the bottle. Seeing no one, I mustered all my will power to feel if there was glass by my head. But as my hand went up it moved towards my own neck as if I was trying to choke myself. I forced my hands away from my neck and then I felt my body slipping even further into the darkness...

It was that this moment that in my mind I started laughing and said, "Oh yeah?". As if I was challenging whoever, or whatever, was trying to take over me.

I then called out and said, "God cast them out." Even before completely saying it I come out of it like it was nothing...

I'm not religious.

In fact, I'm not a fan of religion at all. I actually used to be an atheist. But now I believe in a higher power, infinite intelligence, or God... whatever, you want to call it.

This belief is not blind faith, but comes from studying philosophy and doing what little research on the existence of man.

So to those out there going through SP. Don't fear, there is a power within you that's always been there. Just call on it when you need it.